


A Memorable Birthday

by afteriwake



Series: Sherlolly Spring Fling - April/May 2019 [1]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Angelo's Restaurant (Sherlock), Birthday Fluff, Birthday Presents, Breakfast in Bed, Delays, Domestic Fluff, Empty restaurant, Established Sherlock Holmes/Molly Hooper, F/M, Gifts for Molly Hooper, Kissing, Molly Plays the Piano, Molly's birthday, Morning Sickness, Mornings, Moving In Together, Nausea, POV Sherlock Holmes, Piano, Plans, Post-Episode: s04e03 The Final Problem, Pregnant Molly Hooper, Sherlock has plans, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, not according to plan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-10
Updated: 2019-05-15
Packaged: 2020-01-11 04:32:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18422880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: Sherlock wants to give Molly a memorable birthday after The Call, especially considering it's her 40th, but things don't goquiteas planned...





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [theconsultingstrangevidder](https://archiveofourown.org/users/theconsultingstrangevidder/gifts).



> A birthday present for **theconsultingstrangevidder**! Her request was " _I would love me some Sherlolly. An embarrassingly fluffy one. Where Molly has her birthday and Sherlock is determined to spoil her rotten?_ " And I am determined to oblige.

It was the first major celebration after...That Call. That was how he looked at his life now, with Molly in it in a romantic way: Before The Call and After The Call. Oh, there wasn’t any denying there had been something brewing between them, but with Mary’s sacrifice and what he saw now as his own stupidity, risking his health to catch a killer and win John back, that call had been something he had almost needed to snap himself out of the delusion he did not love Molly Hooper with all his heart, that he would not lay down his life for hers without the slightest hesitation.

That he would not go even to the Gates of Hell if she was threatened.

So while some small part of him rebelled at thinking of the other circumstances of his treatment at the hands of his sister, The Call was always in perfect clarity for him. And he never wanted to see Molly as sad as she was on that screen ever again, if he could help it.

Forty was a birthday most women didn’t want to hit; he knew that much from the women’s magazines he had read. And this was Molly’s fortieth birthday, and he wanted to make it as memorable and special as she was. He had it all planned: breakfast in bed, a trip to one of her favourite museums with their own personal tour as well as a sneak peek behind the scenes and lunch and dinner out wherever her heart desired. He’d have borrowed his brother’s name to get reservations somewhere grand to impress her if he hadn’t already done that their first few official debts, and she hadn’t pulled him aside and said she liked Angelo’s just fine.

He was far luckier than he deserved he realized, but as he went to get out of bed to begin to make her breakfast she threw back to covers and bolted to the loo. He was concerned and without bothering to don his dressing gown he followed her, hearing her retch into the loo. “Molly?” he asked, staying outside the door. “Do you...need anything?”

“Just a wet washcloth,” she said before she retched again. He opened the door and went to the sink, wetting a washcloth and taking it to her. “Food poisoning on my birthday...absolutely wonderful.”

He was thinking otherwise, but he kept his observations to himself. He was usually quite good at making sure the supply on menstrual products was filled at Baker Street, and it seemed as though the stores hadn’t been touched in at least a month. “Well, I was going to make you breakfast in bed, but perhaps you’d like something lighter?”

“Yes please,” she said. “Just...could you be a dear and get some croissants from the bakery? And no fancy coffee or juice. I’ll sip water while you’re gone.”

“Can I get you a coffee for later?” he asked, and she flashed him a wan smile and nodded before her eyes widened and she held her head over the loo. So breakfast in bed was out but perhaps this bout of sickness would be over in the morning like it was supposed to be and they could still continue on with his plans. 

He headed to the bakery and the coffee shop, getting the freshest croissants he could and her sweetened coffee along with a black coffee with two sugars for him. He took it all back to the flat and into his bedroom, and he saw her curled on her side, reading a book. “Oh, that was quick,” she said with a smile.

“Simple orders,” he said, sitting next to her. “Molly...do you think you might be pregnant?”

“I hadn’t considered that,” she said as she took a croissant out of the bag and tore a piece off. “I could be, I suppose. I can’t remember the last time I had a proper cycle.”

“Well, we can check later, I suppose,” he said. “I had these plans for the day. A trip to The National Gallery with your own guided tour and a behind the scenes look, and lunch and dinner at your favourite places. Nothing extravagant, and no parties until the one Meena is throwing you this weekend with your colleagues from work and John and Lestrade and Sally.”

She looked at him fondly. “Let me see how I keep this down and then we can do all those things. And since we’ll be at an art museum, maybe we could go to a gallery and get a painting? I’d just like something pretty in the sitting room to look at when I’m in my chair.”

“Of course,” he said, bending down to kiss her forehead. They would do whatever she wanted today, whatever she felt up to, and perhaps that would make it a good birthday...though if she did the pregnancy test today, perhaps a memorable one as well.


	2. Chapter 2

She managed to keep the food as well as the coffee down, and he was grateful all of his plans weren’t dashed entirely. No lingering in bed after breakfast, true, but there was the gallery and then shopping for something for the sitting room, and then...well, dinner at Angelo’s was the surprise of the evening. He wasn’t proposing, not that he had planned on it, but the gift he had gotten her was at his friend’s restaurant, waiting. How he was going to get it back to Baker Street without help he didn’t know but still, the piano he was buying from Angelo was in his apartment above the shop and he wanted to at least show it to her on her birthday instead of after while he and Angelo worked out transportation details.

They took a cab to the National Gallery and arrived later than planned, so the tour guide was busy with another tour. But the behind the scenes look at the Gallery was still available and he swore he had never seen Molly so fascinated by something that wasn’t a dead body before. He was glad that they had at least managed this today, even if it meant no personal guided tour, but when their behind the scenes look was over she took his hand and took him to all of her favourite pieces before they went to look at new and temporary exhibitions, and he felt perhaps this personal guided tour was even better.

There was a framed Van Gogh replica in the gift store that Molly instantly fell in love with that was already matted and framed, and so they bought it for the sitting room. It wasn’t very large, but he had the feeling Molly knew exactly where it would go so she could look at it whenever she wanted. He wondered if she had ever realized how much it had meant to him that she had made his home hers as well, once John and Rosie had moved back out into the home he had shared with Mary before her death. She had brought warmth and life back into a place he had feared would never be home again, not after the bombing, and he was forever grateful.

They had lunch at a bistro cafe nearby and then Molly ran to a Tesco to pick up a few things. The nausea was hovering on the edge and she wanted saltines to nibble on and yes, a pregnancy test. He almost suggested abandoning the rest of their plans to find out once and for all but as long as the food from the bistro stayed down he had the feeling she would make him wait.

They spent the day together doing whatever she fancied, but soon enough it was time to get ready for dinner at Angelo’s. It didn’t take him too long to get ready but Molly took her time with her hair and make-up in the loo, and when she came out she looked absolutely stunning.

They caught another cab to the restaurant and Sherlock was surprised to find the entire restaurant empty. “Not a surprise party?” Molly asked warily.

“Not that I planned,” Sherlock said. They went to the door but it was locked, and only then did he see the folded sign on the door. “Family emergency,” Sherlock read. “Which means I’ll have to show you your gift tomorrow, or whenever he comes back.”

“My gift is here?” she asked.

“There’s a small baby grand piano in the upstairs apartment. Angelo was given it as an inheritance but it was broken and needed tuning and repair. I paid for that, and we’re simply trying to figure out how to get it to Baker Street. I was going to get rid of the chairs John and I used for it, move them to the basement flat for the time being.”

“Oh, Sherlock!” she said, wrapping her arms around him. “You remembered?”

“That you were a piano prodigy as a girl? Yes. I actually saw a video recording of one of your performances when we went to visit your mother. With your skill, it won’t take long to get your muscle memory back.”

“Well, then you’ll have to be prepared to share the piano with our child if they don’t pick up the violin,” she said, a twinkle in her eye.

“You’re pregnant?” he asked, his eyes wide.

She nodded. “I did the test before I took my shower and did my hair and makeup. It came back positive. I just need more accurate testing and then we’ll have a potential due date to look forward to.”

He picked her up and spun her around before setting her back on the ground and kissing her deeply. She grinned against his lips and then pulled away. “I saw we have our evening meal somewhere hideously expensive to celebrate and run it on Mycroft’s tab. How do you feel about Persian?”

“Mmm, I was thinking we could skip right to dessert,” she said, winding her arms around his neck. “And maybe plot how to fit a baby into Baker Street when we’re done.”

“Maybe that will work too,” he murmured before kissing her again. They stood outside the empty restaurant for a few moments, lost in each other before they went arm in arm to find a cab to take back home. Overall nothing had quite gone as planned, but he had the feeling this was definitely one of Molly’s more memorable birthdays, and he was glad for that.


End file.
